Smart Grid News

Security experts: Cyber attacks are complex, frequent and hard to detect and stop

SUBNET Solutions Inc | Thursday, June 23, 2011

Over the past few months, there has been a steadily increasing number of reports regarding cyber security breaches at a number of high-profile companies. According to a published report, security experts affirm that such security breaches are exceedingly common.

The New York Times reports that a new study from the research firm Ponemon Institute suggests that cyber security attacks are occurring significantly more often than they are being reported on. The research group polled 581 security professionals at large companies in the U.S., France, Britain and Germany across a host of industries to determine the findings.

According to Ponemon's survey, more than 90 percent of respondents said that their companies had encountered at least one security breach in the past year. What's more, more than 59 percent of those polled said they had witnessed two or more cyber security breaches in the same time period.

The financial toll of cyber security infiltration is significant, according to the survey, with 41 percent of break-ins resulting in costs of more than $500,000 to fix. The security experts who participated in the survey also affirmed that cyber security attacks are becoming more complex, frequent and harder to both detect and stop.

The study mirrors a growing body of research regarding cyber security practices. The Obama administration, as well as governments across the globe, has stressed the importance of protecting critical infrastructure like the smart grid from such attacks, but many organizations are now implementing proper cyber security protections to guard against hackers.

For example, the recent high-profile breach at Citigroup was accomplished because the company, which is one of the biggest banks in the world, failed to safeguard against basic hacking methods.

Among the respondents to the Ponemon poll, a large number said that cyber security attacks were emanating from all corners of the globe, with many foreign governments implicated in at least some of the hacks. Many hackers target specific bits of information during cyber security breaches, which leaves the U.S. power supply network vulnerable as it is so critical to the country's businesses and government agencies.

Of the 60 percent of respondents who said they were able to identify the source of at least some of the attacks suffered by their organizations, about 34 percent were traced back to China, and an additional 19 percent were found to have originated in Russia.

Still, the survey found that 75 percent of companies felt their effectiveness to ward off such attacks would benefit from implementing end-to-end solutions.